IRIS

Every Monday, the LiveScience website publishes an article on a discovery, event, or character that influenced the course of history. This week’s note is “How the Eruption of Thera [modern Santorini] Changed the World”:
The world map might look differently had the Greek volcano Thera not erupted 3,500 years ago in what geologists believe was the [...]

[Read more →]

The Sixth Edition of Vox Romana, is a free bi-monthly podcast about all things Roman. In this edition:
1. Introduction (Hortensia) | 2. Classical News (Hortensia) | 3. The Roman Calendar part 1 (Saturninus) | 4. Plinian Rough Mix (Meredith Bragg) | 5. Aeneid (Anna) | 6. Sign off (Hortensia)

[Read more →]

The BBC has a nifty slide show documenting the very cool hi-tech cleaning of the Parthenon Marbles in Athens, which has removed decades of pollution.

Since the damage to the Athenian reliefs turned out to be less severe than previously thought, the cleaning has fueled the debate over whether the rest of the marbles, (in)famously known [...]

[Read more →]

Sarah writes…
I’m finally able to refer to the mental map of Rome in my head, it’s really exciting to have free time and be able to go around the city, just me, my water bottle, bus pass, and copy of my passport (safety first). I went to the Victor Emmanuel monument at Piazza Venezia [...]

[Read more →]

From Tri-Co News and Notes comes an update about a piece of Haverford’s Classical past:

Whitney Ale, teaching assistant for Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil, spent the tail end of fall semester restoring a 150-year old plaster- cast bust of the goddess Diana that once sat atop the shelves of the old Haverford Library. As [...]

[Read more →]

According to a new poll, it seems Britons are busy turning their storied history into myth and legend (via AFP):
LONDON (AFP) – Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real. [...]

[Read more →]

Herodotus and Robert Strassler’s new Landmark Herodotus took center stage yesterday on NPR’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” (program available in archive). No word on whether that inveterate Herodotus-hater Plutarch, author of “On the Malice of Herodotus”, was available for comment.

[Read more →]